Trials of a Hero
by Arsenal11258
Summary: As every demigod knows, the forces of the universe are always against them. Nyx is rising, planning to overpower Olympus and bring about an eternal night. As the problem worsens and the armies of night ravage the world, it is up to the demigods of Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter to put an end to Nyx's reign of terror and fulfill the next Great Prophecy. Rated K because of themes.
1. Chapter One: Percy

**Hello human beings of the interweb.**

 **This is technically not my first Fanfic, but my first one was crap and ultimately a bust so I'm going to consider this one my first if that's alright with you guys. So enjoy and whatnot.**

 **Disclaimer (because it needs to be done): I don't own Percy Jackson. Just the story and the OCs.**

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Chapter One: Percy

"Hey, Percy?"

Percy turned around, diverting his attention from the open suitcase in front of him, to see Annabeth in the open doorway of Cabin 3, population: Percy Jackson. He smiled at her presence. "Yes?"

"Before you unpack, you want to come with me on a patrol. I want to help some of the other campers go out to look for new demigods."

"Yeah, sure." He stood up and stretched. "I was hoping for a little excitement anyway."

She scoffed. "Like you don't get enough excitement as the son of Poseidon."

"Yep." Percy walked over to her and leaned against the wall. "But there's nothing like the screams of thirteen year old children being chased by Stymphalian birds at ten o'clock in the morning."

"That's morbid."

Percy rolled his eyes playfully. "Come on. You can't say that the new demigods aren't hilariously terrified over everything."

Annabeth giggled. "Okay, maybe they are. But can you blame them? At least most of them don't faint like you did."

"I did not faint!" He protested.

"You did. You also drooled in your sleep. You still do."

"I do not drool!"

Annabeth, all of a sudden, stood on her toes and kissed him. Percy leaned down and cupped her cheek tenderly to reciprocate the kiss. And just as suddenly as it started, it ended when Annabeth took a step back outside. "Yes you do. Now come on." And being the obedient lovesick puppy that he was, Percy followed her.

Camp Half-Blood had completely recovered since the battle with Gaea and Camp Jupiter. The damage that had been done had been repaired and the campers were once again back to their normal lives, or as normal as a life can get when one is a demigod.

The Athena Parthenos stood facing the Long Island Sound like a sentinel, protecting the camp from external harms. Percy smiled at the forty-foot tall memento of their quest to stop Gaea. Obviously, not all of the memories of that journey were good ones (actually most of them were bad ones) but he had forged some of the greatest friendships that he had ever had.

Percy grabbed Annabeth's hand as they walked to the edge of the water where Blackjack was somehow already hooked up to a chariot, along with another pegasus. Both chariots were empty.

"Yo, boss. You got any donuts?" Blackjack asked.

"Do I look like I have any donuts?"

"No, but it doesn't hurt to ask."

"Peter!" someone shouted behind him.

Percy turned around and sighed. "It's Percy, Mr. D."

"That's great. I want you to take another camper with you."

"Okay, sure. Why?"

"Because you might need it." Mr. D winked.

Percy looked at him suspiciously. "You're being strangely cryptic."

Ignoring him, Mr. D turned around to look back at the camp and pointed to another camper who happened to be walking by. "You. Mather Shoe."

The camper raised his eyebrows. "It's Xander Shaw."

He waved his hand dismissively. "Whatever. I want you to go with Perry and Anabel to do… whatever they're doing." He walked away, sipping from his can of Coca-Cola all the way.

Percy looked at Xander Shaw. He had seen him around camp before, but it was one of the campers that he just never talked to. His camp necklace had three beads on it, one of them being a picture of the Empire State Building from the Battle for New York and another being of the Athena Parthenos from the year before. Percy's own necklace had a slightly more personalized bead for last year, his being the Argo II. Annabeth had a matching one on hers.

The kid looked to be a couple years younger than him, maybe sixteen. His dark hair was carefully styled to give it that carefree, tousled look. There was one odd streak of silver mixed in with the chocolate brown of his hair, and it wasn't very different from the streak of gray that had only recently disappeared from his own hair as an after effect of holding up the sky. He had the mischievous, calculating glint in his eyes of a typical Hermes kid and the elf-like features that complimented the look. He looked similar to the other Hermes children, like the Stoll brothers.

"Nice to meet you, Xander. Hermes Cabin, right?"

He put on an expression of mock surprise. "How ever did you figure that out, Percy?"

 _Okay, then. This kid is… a little strange._ "Okay, Xander. We're going to look for new demigods. You really don't have to come if you don't want to. I'm sure Mr. D won't care."

"No, I'll come. Watching kids scream as they run for their lives from an empousa sounds fun."

"See, Annabeth." Percy said, gesturing to Xander. "It's not just me. It's not morbid."

"No, it's definitely morbid." Xander said, climbing into the last chariot. "But where's the fun in it if it isn't morbid." With that last remark, he took off into the sky.

Percy looked to Annabeth with a smile. "I like this kid."

"You would."

* * *

They soared through the sky over New York City, not caring enough if they were spotted by the people down on the ground. With the mist, they would probably think they saw a sea plane or something. And it was starting to get dark anyway. They had started by going south and circling around the tri-state area. After searching the city, they were planning on going back for a well deserved pizza-and-blue-Coke dinner.

"See any monsters?"

Annabeth looked around again. "Nope."

Percy leaned against the side of the chariot. "Annabeth. It just occurred to me that soon we're going to go off to college and start a new life away from the monsters and the fighting and the prophecies."

"Yeah." Annabeth sighed. "I really don't know the first thing about living a completely normal life. My entire existence has been dominated by me being a demigod."

"It doesn't matter." He drew closer to her until their foreheads were touching. "It doesn't matter because I am never going to leave your side. I promised you that when you found me at Camp Jupiter. And I've kept my promise since then, haven't I?"

"But you have to continue to keep that promise, okay?"

Percy engulfed her in his arms. Her hair smelled like lemon soap and strawberries. Their bodies seemed to fit perfectly with one another's as if they were two adjacent puzzle piece in their own little corner of the universe. "Of course."

After all the life-threatening situations that they had been in, it was these moments that Percy seemed to live for. The quiet ones in which everything was perfect and whole and pure. He could honestly have stayed like that forever.

"Hey, love birds. Sorry to burst your little bubble of domestic euphoria but there's something going on down there." Xander yelled over the wind.

They broke apart, Percy still euphoric from the innocent moment with Annabeth. They looked in the direction where Xander was pointing and saw a couple of hellhounds chasing after a small figure through the backstreets of the city.

The two chariots began to descend to intercept the group. As they neared, Percy could see that the target demigod in question was definitely not thirteen. She looked to be closer to fifteen or even sixteen, which was strange considering that a couple of years ago, he had made the gods promise to claim all of their demigod children by the time they turned thirteen. Obviously _someone_ didn't get the memo.

"What are a couple of hellhounds doing out in the middle of the day? Any ideas?" Annabeth asked.

Percy shrugged. "They seemed to be heading _away_ from the all-you-can-eat burrito place on 25th street, so I've got nothing else."

Annabeth, as expected, pointedly ignored the comment and steered Blackjack in the direction of the not-thirteen-year-old girl.

Overall, the girl was doing pretty well to keep ahead of the hellhounds by darting into small alleys, until two more hellhounds appeared on the opposite side of the alley, boxing the girl in. Percy, Annabeth and Xander jumped down from the chariots to face the hellhounds, much to the surprise of the overly terrified demigod girl.

"Don't look now, but it's the apple lady." Blackjack said before edging away from the danger.

"Apple lady?"

Percy was so focused on the hellhounds that he didn't notice the black figure that had appeared from behind the hellhounds. She wore a ridiculously black dress with black makeup to complement the look that make her look like every single goth person that Percy had ever seen had been mushed into one body. She had the crazed look of a serial killer at a slaughterhouse, which didn't reassure Percy at all about her intentions.

"Wasn't she one of the children of Nyx that we saw in Tartarus?" Percy asked.

Annabeth cringed outwardly at the mention of Tartarus. That was not a time that either of them liked to remember. "Yes, that's Eris."

"I'm so flattered that you remember me, Percy Jackson. Now please kindly step aside as I rip out this girl's esophagus."

"Excuse me?!" The demigod girl shouted.

"Not today, Eris. Everyone knows that ripping out people's' esophaguses out is more of a Thursday thing." Percy said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Yes, Percy. I'm sure that's very reassuring for the girl."

"I have a name you know."

"Yes, that's great. But if you haven't noticed, now is not really the time for introductions." Xander told her.

"What do you want, Eris?"

Eris scoffed and took a step forward. "Since when do I need to answer the stupid questions of a demigod." She pointed a crooked finger at the group of demigods and the hellhounds shot forward.

Percy uncapped his pen and it grew into the sword, Riptide. As the first hellhound dove in his direction, he sidestepped it and slashed the beast's exposed belly. It cried out, but immediately came back into the fight. The second hellhound was more cautious and sneaky. It jumped straight over Percy to try and attack Xander's exposed back. Just as it was about to land on him, Annabeth ran in front of it and the hellhound fell straight into her dagger face first and evaporated into dust.

One of the hellhounds from the other side had tackled the girl to the ground and seemed to want to eat her face, while she desperately held out her hands to keep the hellhound's frothing mouth away from her. Percy thrust his sword into its side and stabbed it until it, too exploded into dust.

"Watch out!" Xander shouted from behind him.

Percy turned to see Xander decapitate a hellhound that was just about to pounce on him from behind. He had to admit, Xander wielded his twin swords pretty skillfully.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

After the last hellhound saw all of his comrades get killed, he was about to turn and flee when Annabeth jumped onto its back and thrust her dagger into its head.

Xander whistled, impressed. "Damn."

"Yeah." Percy agreed.

They all turned to face Eris, who was looking just a little bit angry that they had defeated her hellhounds so quickly. But she also could have been a lot angrier. "You will pay for this defeat later, demigods. The eternal night is coming and you won't be able to stop it. Your precious camp will fall and we will harvest the souls of all the people you hold dear. But you, Percy Jackson. You will be the last to fall. You will watch your world burn and beg for mercy. Mercy that will not come." Suddenly, the world was engulfed in shadow, and it was so dark that Percy couldn't see anything. But just as quickly as the darkness came, it left and Eris was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, on that pleasant note." Percy turned to look at the girl, who was cowering against the wall. "What's your name?"

"What the heck just happened?!"

"We'll explain later. Just come with us. We can take you somewhere that's safe."

"Didn't that woman just threaten your life? And you're not scared at all? And those dog things were the size of bears!"

Annabeth took a step forward and bent down. "Calm down. Everything is going to be okay. What is your name?"

"Quinn."

"Hi, Quinn. I'm Annabeth. You have any family, Quinn?"

She shook her head.

"Do you want to come with us?" Annabeth asked.

Quinn shied away, suspicious. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere where people like us can live in relative safety."

"People like _us_?"

"Demigods. Children of mortal and immortal descent."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. You think that I am a demigod? Oh my god I am going crazy."

"You're not going crazy."

"But that's impossible, monsters like that and-and-and Greek gods and stuff like that, none of that exists. That's all just legends and tales made up by people a long time ago."

"How did you know that it was Greek?"

"You called that woman Eris, right? Like the Greek goddess of discord and strife?"

Annabeth turned to Percy. "I like _this_ one."

"You would." He replied, smiling.

Annabeth turned back to Quinn and began to talk to her again. Instead of listening in again, Percy pulled Xander aside. "Thanks for saving my butt earlier."

"It was nothing." Xander glanced over at the girls. "Why was Eris so interested in that girl? I can understand why monsters would attack a demigod, but a god attacking a demigod? And what was all that stuff that Eris said about eternal night and all that jazz?"

Percy shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea. But Mr. D seemed to know something when he told you to come with us. Something really weird is happening and I really don't want to be involved in the next big world-ending crisis."

* * *

 **Thanks guys for reading this. It would greatly appreciated it you guys could give me some feedback on my writing give me some ideas for what I could do in the later chapters.**

 **I am hoping to submit a chapter every week now that its summer and I don't have to worry about school and shit.**

 **So now that that is over with:**

 **I am sorry that my OCs are shit but they will get better later (probably) and I'm sorry that I don't have a sense of humor but fuck it I can't tell jokes for my life.**


	2. Chapter Two: Xander

**Hi guys.**

 **Yes I know that I said that I was going to post once every week, but right now I am in the zone. I kind of wrote spent a couple of hours just writing whatever the fuck came to my mind and this was the result.**

 **This next chapter focuses on my two OCs and I am using to build their characters before delving back into the overall story.**

 **I am also going to do a quote thing for each chapter from now on to give each chapter some character. Sorry if that's too cliche...**

 **Hope you enjoy Chapter Two.**

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"Every human walks around with a certain kind of sadness. They may not wear it on their sleeves, but it's there if you look deep."

\- Taraji P. Henson

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Chapter Two: Xander

As to be expected from the tragic love birds, they suggested that Xander take the newbie with him on his chariot. And as to be expected from the newbie, she asked a ridiculous amount of questions. _Why was someone trying to kill her?_ (He answered that he didn't know). _Where were they going?_ (He answered that he didn't care). _Why wouldn't he answer any of her questions?_ (He answered that if she said another word, he would pull an Eris and rip out her esophagus despite it not being Thursday).

"I hope you realize that I'm not going to stop asking you questions until you start answering them." She said bluntly.

Xander glanced over at her. The girl was short. Like, at least half a head shorter than himself. She had long, black hair but a very pale complexion that almost made her look like a ghost in the light of the setting sun. She seemed to have that innocent naivety of a young child. The girl possessed an ethereal beauty, he supposed, but that meant close to nothing.

Finally, he sighed and admitted defeat. "I will answer three of your questions completely and truthfully if you promise to stop talking after. Deal?" He held out his hand for her to shake.

Quinn looked at it skeptically for a long moment and Xander could almost see the gears turning inside her head, calculating. Just when his hand was about to drop from fatigue, the girl shook it and repeated, "Deal."

Xander calmly leaned against the side of the chariot. "Choose wisely what you're going to ask."

She seemed to think about it for a moment, not breaking eye contact with him for a single second. He met her gaze and waited.

"What about Greek mythology is true?"

He had to admit that that question took him a little by surprise. He had expected her to ask about the fight in the alley, or about Percy, or about where they were going. But he answered anyway. "Pretty much everything you've heard about in Greek mythology is true. The gods, the monsters, the battles, the powers, etcetera, etcetera. There really is a Pantheon of immortal and incredibly annoying gods on Mount Olympus in the sky above New York City-"

"New York? Why not in Greece?"

Xander smirked. "Is that one of your official three questions?"

"No." She said hastily.

He snorted mockingly. "So anyway, what we fought in the alley were hellhounds. Eris is a goddess, obviously. And we are demigods. And you don't have to ask. I will just tell you and save you the trouble. My godly parent is Hermes."

"Annabeth said that I had to be a demigod since I saw those hellhounds and the goddess for what they truly are. So who is my godly parent?"

"Is that one of your three?"

"No, but you're going to tell me anyway."

The girl had moxie. Admirable. "What makes you say that?"

"Because you only have to say three words. 'It is so-and-so' or 'I don't know'." As she said it, she counted the number of words on her fingers, which only succeeded in making him feel dumb.

He pushed down her hand with his own. "First of all, I know how to count words. You don't have to do it for me. Despite what people might think, I'm not an idiot. Second, I don't know." He counted the three words on his fingers in an effort to spite her.

She briefly digested this information. "Tell me about where we are going. Annabeth explained it briefly, but not really."

When she didn't add anything else, Xander made the assumption that it was her second question. "We're going to Camp Half-Blood. It's kind of like a summer camp, but for demigods."

She nodded. "That's what Annabeth said."

"It's a place where people like us can live and train to fight without the fear of being attacked by monsters from the outside. We are divided up into cabins based on our godly parent. For example, I am from Cabin 11, or Hermes Cabin. Once we get to Camp, your godly parent will probably claim you-"

"Claim me…" She repeated confused and skeptical.

"Yes. Now stop interrupting." He cleared his throat, again in an effort to spite her. This time it worked, he noticed. She lowered her eyebrows and glared at him until he continued. "The godly parent sends some sort of sign that shows everyone who the demigod's parent is. The sign is generally a symbol above the head, like a golden bow in the case of Apollo, or it sometimes is something else, like a makeover from some of the Aphrodite kids. So anyway, it is a home away from home where we can be safe."

The girl nodded. "Sounds like a nice place."

"Oh, I almost forgot. When we get there, don't be alarmed. There are some other creatures there that aren't human."

Despite his words, she looked slightly alarmed. "Such as…" She gestured for him to continue.

"Like satyrs, or goat peopl-"

"I know what satyrs are."

Xander rolled his eyes. "Fine, sheesh. So, satyrs, nymphs of various sorts, centaurs, pegasi, Argus, who has eyes _everywhere_ on his body, the occasional cyclops, a dragon, don't worry he's friendly, some harpies… oh yeah, word of advice. Don't go outside at night unless you want to get eaten. And don't go into the woods alone unless you want to get eaten."

"That's very reassuring." She seemed like she was almost in a panic. "'This place is super safe. By the by, try not to get killed by the hundreds of monsters that just happen to be roaming wild and free inside of said super-safe-place'." She said in a deeper, dumber sounding voice, no doubt trying to mock his own.

"I do not sound like that." He protested.

"Yes, you do." She said in the same voice.

"I don't sound that stupid."

"Yes, you do."

"Gods, why are you so petty?"

Quinn crossed her arms. "Is that one of your official questions?" She mocked.

"I could just stop talking right now, you know." He threatened.

"Fine." She said admitting defeat, in her own voice. After a moment of blissful silence, the girl spoke again. "I would like to cash in my second question."

"No, no, no, no, no. You only have one question left. I answered the other two."

She smiled again, slyly. Xander had only known Quinn for less than half an hour and he was already starting to hate that smile. It made him feel like she knew something he didn't. "But my second 'question'" she put air quotations around the word, "wasn't actually a question. I said, 'tell me about where we're going'. That was never a question. You told me anyway."

"That's not fair." He protested. "You're twisting my words around."

She crossed her arms again, smugly. "All's fair in love and war."

"Love?"

As expected, she flushed with embarrassment, which brought Xander some satisfaction. "It's just an expression."

"You only have one question left. I'm not letting you cheat me that easily."

"Fine." She turned outward to look at the land passing by underneath them. Everything looked so small and picturesque from a distance. But Xander had realized a long time ago that in reality, life was much uglier up close.

"Do you have friends?"

Xander's eyes darted back to her in surprise and horror. She didn't meet his gaze, instead choosing to look down at the bay. "Is that seriously your third question?"

She shook her head. "No, but, like the other question I asked earlier, you are going to answer it anyway."

"Why the hell would I do that?"

Quinn smiled, but in a calmer and happier way. "Because I'm going to find out eventually from other people at this camp. And you would probably prefer if I heard it from your own mouth instead of from other people."

He scoffed. "Do you really think that I consider your opinion so highly?"

"Yes, I do. Otherwise you wouldn't have defended yourself earlier and said that you weren't an idiot. You said 'despite what people might think'. So other people think of you that way, but you didn't want me to think of you that way. If you didn't care, you wouldn't have said anything. You do care, but you wish you didn't."

 _Who was this girl? And why was she so good at seeing right through him?_ He sighed in annoyance, but complied, "No, I don't really have any friends."

She finally met his gaze. "Is that why you're so sad?"

"I'm not sad." He said, immediately on his guard again. He hadn't realized that he had even let his guard down around her until he felt the need to put it up again.

"Yes, you are. You look sad whenever you think no one is looking. You don't even realize it, do you?"

"Shut up."

But of course, she didn't. "And that is my third question. Why are you so sad?" She seemed… almost like she felt sorry for him despite knowing him for only half an hour. He hated that.

"I don't have to answer that."

"Yes, you do. You promised that you would answer all of my three questions completely and truthfully. And you don't seem like the kind of guy that goes back on his word."

He snorted at the absurdity of that statement. She knew nothing about him. "What makes you say that?"

"Because even though you pickpocketed me of wallet when I got on the chariot, you still have honor. And by the way, I would like that back, please." She extended her outstretched hand, like a beggar would on the streets.

 _Again, who was this girl?_ Begrudgingly, he took the wallet out of his own pocket and put it in her outstretched hand. Xander sighed. "To answer your question, my mom is abusive. Happy, now?"

She cocked her head. "That feels like that's true, but that isn't the full truth, is it? Someone died."

At this point, he was beginning to even _expect_ her to read his thoughts, but this had gone too far. "I answered your questions. Now make do on your side of the deal and shut up."

"It was someone you loved, wasn't it?" She said, ignoring him. "You were in love with someone and they died, and considering that you're a demigod and all of this monster stuff is real, I think that they were killed. And that's why you're sad. Am I correct in assuming that?"

He turned his face away from her so that it wouldn't betray any of his emotions. Old, buried memories threatened to resurface and it took all of his energy and willpower to push them back down. He fingered the second bead on his necklace, the one with the image of the Empire State Building on it. The paint on the wooden bead was worn down from him rubbing it too much, so much so that her name was almost illegible. He would need to break that habit if he wanted to preserve the bead.

"You are a strange girl, you know that." He said, watching the sun begin its descent beyond the horizon in its red, fiery glory.

He could hear the smile on her face when she spoke again, but her voice sounded sad. "Yes. And that's why I don't really have any friends."

They sat in a quiet, thoughtful silence for the rest of the flight to Camp Half-Blood.

* * *

 **Thanks again for reading this. I plan on posting the next chapter whenever I finish it, and knowing me, that could be anywhere between midnight tonight to Thursday.**

 **So I am actually going to Paris at the end of the month so I hope to get as many chapters that I can possibly write out of my system before I go off to another country.**

 **Please hit that follow button or even the favorite button (if you're feeling lucky) because that would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to comment or PM to give me some feedback on my writing (because I am aware that it is shit) or to give me some ideas of what I could do with the story moving forward.**

 **Okay I'm done talking. Thanks again. BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! ;)**


	3. Chapter Three: Annabeth

**I'm in a writing frenzy aHhHhHhHhHhHhHhH!? (why was that a question?) Help me please...**

 **Okay guys chapter three, coming at you fast.**

 **Disclaimer (I know I forgot it in the last chapter sorry guys): As awesome as it would be, I don't own Percy Jackson. That privilege is solely Rick Riordan's. I only own the OCs and the storyline.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"It's not the situation, but whether we react negative or respond positive to the situation that is important."

\- Zig Ziglar

* * *

Chapter Three: Annabeth

"...this monster stuff is real, I think that they were killed. And that's why you're sad. Am I correct in assuming that?" Quinn said, barely audible over the howling wind.

Annabeth looked to Percy. "Why are we doing this? This is a personal conversation between the two of them."

He shrugged. "I just want to know if Quinn knows anything about why she was attacked or what Eris said. I think that I have a pretty good reason for eavesdropping."

"Is there ever a good reason for eavesdropping?"

Percy laughed. "I guess you have a point. But speaking of eavesdropping, Piper and Jason are coming back today."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. "What does that have to do with eavesdropping?"

"I don't know. It was just trying to redirect the conversation."

She rolled her eyes. Jason and Piper had gone to visit Camp Jupiter in the Bay Area of California a couple of weeks before. The plan was that Frank and Hazel would come back east with Jason and Piper to visit Camp Half-Blood for a week or two before going back. And Percy and Annabeth were planning on going with them to start a new life in New Rome.

The future was coming for them, and Annabeth couldn't wait.

"I was Iris-messaging Leo a couple of days ago and he said that he and Calypso were also planning on taking the trip up to Camp. We could get together as the full Seven for the first time since the Giant War." Percy said.

Annabeth smiled at the thought of that, while trying to ignore the circumstances for the gathering of the Seven in the first place. "I really can't wait to see Leo. It's been so long."

As they were passing over the sound, Camp Half-Blood came into view on the Long Island Shore. The Athena Parthenos seemed to watch them as they flew into Camp and as the two pegasi landed on the grass.

"Wow." Annabeth heard Quinn say. "Is that Athena?"

"Yep. That's my mom."

"That's really cool. And now that we are here," Quinn rubbed her hands together in anticipation and spread her arms while looking at the sky. "Claim me."

There was a moment of confused silence, in which absolutely nothing happened. "What are you doing?" Xander asked her.

"You said that my godly parent would probably claim me as soon as we got to Camp. So..." She looked back to the sky expectedly. "Claim me."

Again, nothing happened. "Well, that was anticlimactic." Percy said. Annabeth elbowed him for being rude.

"Has anyone ever _not_ been claimed?" Quinn asked sheepishly.

"Quinn, your parent will claim you. Don't worry-"

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning came down from the sky and exploded only a dozen feet from where they were standing. Quinn screamed while Percy and Xander took their weapons out and faced the possibly threat.

Right where the bolt of lightning had struck, a tall, gray eyed women stood, looking exactly the same as her 40-foot, stone counterpart at the top of the hill, minus the toga and the little Nike statue in her hand.

"Mom." Annabeth said in surprise.

"Annabeth," Athena greeted. She looked around disdainfully at Percy and Xander still holding their weapons. "I must admit that I'm not normally greeted this hostilely."

"Sorry." Percy said sheepishly before both he and Xander put away their weapons.

Athena turned back to look at Annabeth. "I have a task for you."

"No."

Athena did a double take in surprise before immediately regaining her composure. "I'm sorry? Why did you flat out say no? I haven't even told you what it is yet."

"But I did tell you before that I'm not going on anymore quests. I meant it when I said that I want to live the rest of my life in peace."

While Annabeth wasn't expecting for her mother to be overjoyed that she would prefer not to risk her life simply because Athena asked, but her mother looked even more annoyed than she expected. "Annabeth," Athena took her aside and quietly said, "Something big is coming. Something that we haven't seen before in our time on Olympus."

Annabeth bit her lip. "That's great, but this doesn't mean that I want to help you."

"Aegis was stolen."

Now, it was Annabeth's turn to do a double take. "What?"

Aegis was the legendary shield of Athena that was imprinted with a picture of Medusa's head on it. After the original Perseus gave Medusa's head to Athena during the times of Ancient Greece, she had put the image onto her shield to intimidate her enemies.

"I had left Aegis in shield form and left it on my throne briefly so that I could come down to Earth to investigate the rising threat that I was talking about before. When I came back, the shield was gone. Hephaestus's security camera only picked up a shadow that came out of nowhere and took the shield along with Hermes's Caduceus. I need you to go retrieve it. I can't go into battle in any state other than my very best."

Annabeth sighed. "Look, Mom. As bad as that sounds, I don't want to keep having to go through this. I'm tired of fighting."

Athena gave her a look of sheer disappointment, which would have made Annabeth feel much more uncomfortable if her mother had been actually been an active part of her life. "Fine. I'll find another demigod to do it." She said as she disappeared, undoubtedly going back to Olympus.

Percy walked closed the distance between them. "What did she want?"

"Someone stole her shield. But she did say something interesting. Something about a rising threat."

"That's like what Eris said earlier."

Annabeth nodded. "But I really don't want to get involved with another world-threatening problem. Can we please just ignore this and focus on having a good time with everyone else?"

Percy smiled. "Of course. I promise you that we're going to sit this one out and soon we'll be in New Rome and all the fighting can end."

"I'd like that."

* * *

Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel, Leo, Calypso and most surprisingly Coach Hedge all arrived at different increments that night. Along with Nico, Will Solace, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare, they sat around a campfire on the cliff above Bunker Nine and talked about things, cracked many, many jokes and reminisced about their terrible past quests.

"...so then Apollo started telling the Blemmyae his story about how he became a mortal and everything. And Calypso was acting as his backup chorus or something and she kept saying… um, what was it that you were calling him?" Leo asked Calypso.

She raised her arms grandly and shouted to the heavens, "Lester Papadopoulos! Pathetic mortal! Most worthless of teens!"

Light laughter filled the air. "I can't believe you called the god of sun worthless and got away with it alive." Frank said.

"But back then he was just a 'pathetic mortal'." Percy said, mimicking Calypso's grand voice.

Leo cleared his throat. "Anyway, after that, I expertly maneuvered the bulldozer into the plaza where Emmie killed the rest of the Blemmyae and we got to the Waystation where we learned about Jo's and Emmie's daughter, Georgie, and about the prophecies and Commodus and all of fun stuff."

"And Leo was small enough to fit into the clothes of an eight year old." Calypso added, smirking.

"I told you not to tell them about that." Leo whispered to her, loudly enough that everyone else could hear it.

"I never promised that I would."

Laughing, Annabeth put another marshmallow onto the end of her stick and stuck it into the fire. She watched amusedly as Percy put his marshmallow near the fire to get it to be golden, but eventually got impatient and ate it while it was still white and whole. Piper was like Annabeth and toasted the marshmallow to make it golden and beautiful before eating it. Nico just didn't eat any. And then there was Leo, who straight up just lit his marshmallow on fire, paraded around the circle of people with his sugary torch, shouted about human sacrifice, and then ate it while it was still on fire.

"Speaking of Apollo and prophecies and stuff, when do think that the next Great Prophecy is going to make its appearance?" Jason asked. Annabeth sighed. She had already lived through two of them. Just hearing about the possibility of another anything but appealing.

"Hopefully long after we're all dead." Percy said bluntly.

"The unfortunate thing about that statement is that could very well be soon." Hazel said, bringing the light mood crashing down faster than

"Thanks, Hazel. Don't get me wrong, I love having the daughter of death tell me that I might die just a few weeks before I go to college." Percy joked, sarcastically.

"Sorry." She whispered sheepishly.

"Actually, though, that reminds me of something." Piper spoke up. "Lately some strange things have been going on. We saw Akhlys and some hellhounds chasing after a demigod on the way over here. We were going to intervene but by the time we got there, all of them were gone, demigod included."

Percy nodded. "We had a run in like that with Eris and some hellhounds. When we confronted her, Eris said that the eternal night was coming or something."

There was a long moment of tense silence. Everyone was thinking the same thing, but no one was willing to voice their concerns. "You don't think that…" Annabeth started.

"Nyx, goddess of night and mother of hellhounds, Eris and Akhlys is…" Rachel continued.

In that moment, the air seemed to grow thick and it became hard to breath. A scream came from the camp in the distance. Almost all of them stood up at once, alert with their weapons in their hands. With the exception of Coach Hedge, who had fallen asleep long before, they were all prepared for a fight.

"Let's go." Percy said.

Jason began to fly towards camp with Piper in his arms. Frank turned into a horse and let Hazel climb onto his back as they galloped in the same direction. Everyone else ran leaving Hedge and the campfire alone at the top of the cliff.

When they got to camp, it was chaos. Armed campers attacked winged, demon hags, but no matter how many they cut down, they always seemed to be the ones worse for wears. Hellhounds pounced on the campers then, and some of them were only barely able to get them off.

"No, please, no." Annabeth gasped. Memories of being alone and abandoned in the worst hell that she had ever been dragged through flashed through her mind. She clung to Percy and he held her tightly back.

"What are those? How did they get through the barrier?" Leo asked.

"We'll find out how later. For now, those things are arai. They inflict the curses of your enemies on you when you kill them. We have to get them out of the camp." Percy shouted, taking control despite the fact that he was trembling.

"Percy…" she began.

"Stay here." He pleaded before uncapping Riptide and running into the middle of the action. She screamed for him to come back but he didn't comply.

She turned to face everyone else, who was looking at her for some kind of leadership. "Take care of the hellhounds first. Help anyone who is injured and get them to safety. Avoid killing the arai as much as you can, or try killing them indirectly." She said, before running after Percy.

When she found him, his left arm was already hanging limply and he was fighting a hellhound who was trying to attack an Aphrodite girl. Annabeth helped the girl up and urged her to go to the Big House and find Chiron and Mr. D. By the time the girl left, Percy had killed the hellhound and was moving on to face down a group of arai.

Annabeth grabbed his arm. "Percy, stop, please."

"Get out of here. It's not safe."

"No. We need a plan or we're never going to be able to defeat them."

"Annabeth!" He shouted in warning, focused on something behind her.

She turned around and saw an arai approaching quickly. She slashed at it with her dagger and it exploded into dust. Suddenly she fell to her knees as it felt like a blade was being twisted into her back. She could feel the back of her shirt getting wet.

 _Kelli the empousa,_ the arai seemed to chant. _You stabbed her in the back in Daedalus's workshop in order to save Percy Jackson. An excellent choice._

Percy kneeled down next to her and helped her to stand. "Are you okay?"

Annabeth gasped in pain, but the wound seemed to already stop bleeding. "I'm fine. Let's go."

They ran around camp, helping other campers and telling them to take refuge at the Big House and find Chiron. They occasionally saw some of the others fighting against the enemy forces. They killed every hellhound that they came across and avoided the arai as much as possible.

A large group of arai was forming around two demigods near the Dining Pavilion. Xander Shaw was cutting down any arai that got near him and Quinn was leaning against a column of the pavilion. Percy and Annabeth ran over to help.

Xander already looked one step from collapsing. He had a huge gash across his shoulder from a hellhound, a large stain of blood on his chest, and who knew how many scratches from the arai. Yet he continued to cut them down.

"Xander, stop killing them! They just curse you!" Percy yelled.

"You think that I haven't noticed that by now?!" He said as he cut down another. Suddenly, he doubled over and collapsed.

The arai cackled and began to close in on Quinn. Percy and Annabeth were close but wouldn't be able to reach her in time. The front arai came forward and was about to slash her, when Quinn raised her hands in an effort to protect herself and the arai froze solid.

The other arai seemed to freeze in their tracks. The frozen arai burst into dust, but nothing seemed to happen to Quinn. She had only learned that she was a demigod that day and no monsters had cursed her yet.

Percy and Annabeth reached her and Xander, and still none of the arai dared move any closer. "What did you just do?" Annabeth asked her.

"I don't know!" She answered panickedly.

"Well whatever it was, can you do it again?"

Quinn raised her hand and pointed another arai. A blast of cold came forth from her hand and hit the arai in the middle of its chest, freezing it. It, too, exploded into dust.

"Keep doing that to every arai you see." Annabeth told her.

They followed Quinn as she made her way through camp, freezing every arai that came close to them. Percy and Annabeth took care of any hellhounds that came their way and eventually, all of the monsters that hadn't yet been defeated had fled.

"Are you okay?" Annabeth asked her later.

Quinn nodded. "I'm just exhausted."

Annabeth pointed her in the direction of the sky blue building in the distance. "Go find Xander and take him to that building. You can both get help there and rest."

Quinn nodded and ran in the direction of the Dining Pavilion.

"Are you okay?" She asked Percy.

He nodded. "Let's find any other campers who are around and go over to the Big House, too. Cause I swear, I'm just about a empousa or two from passing out."

"Percy, that sentence didn't make any sense."

"I can live with that."

* * *

 **Again, guys sorry if my writing is crap. I'm in a writing frenzy and I haven't really been thoroughly censoring all of my work, so it could just be gibberish.**

 **Give me feedback, follow or favorite this please and hope you enjoyed it.**

 **Knowing me in this stated right now, the next chapter could very well come out tomorrow morning, or it could come out in like a week. Look out for it guys.**


	4. Chapter Four: Quinn

**I got to say, this chapter is... messier than the other ones. I'm just going to leave it at that.**

 **Thanks for continuing to read this story, and I promise that it will get better as time goes on.**

 **So enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: I wish I owned Percy Jackson but sadly, I am insignificant and do not own Percy Jackson**

* * *

"We are both disturbed and fascinated by visions of bleak futures, predictions of what might come if we as a society aren't careful."

\- Marie Lu

* * *

Chapter Four: Quinn

The sky blue building that Xander had called the "Big House", in his tour of the camp, offered none of the rest that Annabeth had promised. It was complete chaos inside. Campers with various injuries were being tended to by other campers who didn't seem any better off. People were running around frantically and there seemed to be only a semblance of order in the room.

As one of the only people who hadn't been affected at all by the hellhounds and the flying-old-women-demon-people-things, she was immediately put to work shuttling around bandages and some weird foods that she had never seen before. But whatever those foods were, they seemed to help the demigods heal much faster than Quinn had thought humanly possible.

When Quinn felt just about ready to collapse from exhaustion, the front doors opened and somehow, there was a lull in the chaos. She turned to see who it was.

The two kids who had saved her in the alley were there. Annabeth was one of them and the other was… Pablo or something. Paul? Percy? That was it: Percy.

Percy and Annabeth somehow held the attention of pretty much every person in the room. They looked around, seemingly assessing the damage and Percy spoke. "Where is Chiron?"

One of the kids who was going around helping injured campers pointed the pair in the direction of the door labeled "Rec Room". The previous chatter and noise commenced again as Annabeth and Percy as they made their way through the crowded room, but everyone seemed to be a little calmer. Percy and Annabeth must have been pretty popular or influential if they had that kind of effect on the rest of the campers.

As they passed by Quinn, Annabeth paused and looked at her. "Can you come with us?"

Surprised, Quinn looked around her to make sure that Annabeth wasn't addressing someone else. When no one else in the general vicinity took up Annabeth's offer, Quinn put down the jar of honey-like liquid on the nearest table and followed.

The Rec Room was much less crowded, but by no means was it much less chaotic. There seemed to be some sort of intense discussion going on, because most of the them didn't even look up when the doors opened. In the middle of the room, a group of almost fifteen campers and a guy who was half horse were sitting (the centaur, of course didn't sit, though) around a ping pong table and many of them wore grave expressions on their faces.

"Yes, I understand that Nyx has, like, supreme control over the night and whatever, but _how_ did they get into camp?" A short, hispanic boy asked.

A tall girl with bright green eyes spoke up. "Haven't we already made it pretty clear that we have no idea, Leo? They might have just teleported in for all we know."

"But I thought that wasn't supposed to be possible!" The kid named Leo said back.

Percy and Annabeth claimed a couple of seats at the table and were immediately accepted into the group, but Quinn felt like she was intruding on something intimate. These kids had probably known each other for years. They seemed to be a tightly knit group that Quinn couldn't encroach upon. _Why did Annabeth even invite her into the room?_ She leaned against the wall in the back of the room, awkwardly listening in.

A few other demigods came into the room and, like Annabeth and Percy, were immediately absorbed into the massive amoeba of flesh and words in the middle of the room. This was high school all over again. She had been the strange girl that sat at the back of the class who never spoke out but aced every test. The girl who, when you got her going, always spoke so argumentatively that it alienated people. No one was necessarily mean to her, but most people only rarely acknowledged her existence. It was like that now.

The conversation was filled with a lot of questions and tentative answers to those questions regarding the attack on the camp, none of which was she able to understand.

As more demigods filed in and the room was getting more and more crowded and the discussion more heated, Quinn decided that it was time to make a quiet exit, despite Annabeth's request that she come in.

"I was wondering, though, what happened at the end of the battle? All of the arai and hellhounds kind of… ran away or something." The Mr. Tall-and-blonde-and-wow-those-eyes-are-blue guy asked.

"Yeah, I was wondering that, too. Don't get me wrong, I love when my enemies just randomly start running away, but why did they just leave?" Asked a small African American girl with eyes that almost seemed like liquid gold.

A number of other demigods also nodded in agreement. Quinn had almost made it to the door when-

"Actually, we have Quinn here to thank for that." She heard Annabeth say.

She grimaced and turned around to see twenty pairs of eyes watching her. Judging her. Quinn was never the center of attention, and when she was, it was never pretty. She wanted to hide in her corner of the room again.

"Ummm… hi." She said awkwardly with a small wave. Her left hand was still on the doorknob behind her.

"Percy and I think that she is the daughter of Khione."

"Wait, we do?" Percy asked. But the four or five Cheeto Puffs in his mouth made it sound more like, "Way, we ou?"

Quinn suddenly forgot her desire to escape the room as another more urgent desire to know who she was took its place. Khione? Quinn racked her brain for some information on the goddess and ultimately came up with nothing.

"Wait, Khione? Like the snow goddess who was working for Gaea and nearly killed us all to add our frozen bodies to her collection of ice sculptures?" Something about the way the Native American girl posed the question made Quinn think that she actually knew the answer, but was resentful of Khione. And if what she said was true, the girl probably had good reason to hate the goddess.

"Yeah, but for someone who was that cold hearted, she was hot." Leo said. The girl with the braided hair sitting next to him casually elbowed him in the gut. He paled slightly. "What I meant to say was, love you, Cal."

"Uh-huh." She said in response to his half-hearted attempt at reconciliation.

"Quinn froze the arai solid and killed them. She used her powers in the same way that I've seen Khione use hers. And it make sense. All of the Olympians promised to claim their children by the time they turn thirteen, but Khione isn't an Olympian goddess, so she never made that promise." Annabeth added.

"But I thought that Khione didn't have any children." A big asian boy asked.

"Khione did have a child with Poseidon, actually." When the centaur said this, Percy mouthed the word 'wow' in speechless surprise. The centaur continued, not noticing Percy's stupefied expression. "She didn't have any demigod children in ancient Greek times, but that's not to say that it isn't possible. She isn't a virgin goddess."

A girl with a short pixie hair cut stood up angrily and pointed at her. Quinn took a step back in surprise. "But if Khione sided with Gaea in the Giant War, then how do we know we can trust her?"

"Seriously, Jenna? Just because you're the child of Nemesis doesn't meant that you need to get revenge on Khione through her daughter." A guy with a shaved head and a rainbow tattoo scolded.

"This has nothing to do with me being Nemesis's daughter. I'm just looking out for the safety of our camp. How do we know that she didn't work for Gaea, too?"

A few other demigods muttered their support for what the girl had said, making her cross her arms and smile smugly. Most of them shook their heads, but didn't say anything. They probably didn't want to believe that she was a spy, but they didn't dismiss the theory either.

Just as Quinn felt she might die from the horror of being accused of being evil, a gloomy boy in the back corner of the room who was wearing all black spoke quietly. "You can trust her in the same way you can trust me. We, of all people, should know that we aren't defined by our parents actions."

Despite his quiet, soft-spoken voice, he held the attention of the entire room. The weight of his words seemed to crash down on everyone and even the pixie-cut girl, who was so forward in her opinions before, sat down quietly, her face flushed with shame.

"Thank you, Nico." Annabeth said. "Now, I think we are getting sidetracked. We're not here to debate the trustworthiness of Quinn, but discuss what we need to do next about whatever is going on right-"

Quinn suddenly noticed that the chaos of the other room, which had been represented by a steady hum of noise in the background, had ceased. It was too quiet. Annabeth seemed to have noticed to because she stopped talking and watched the doors to the other room. The doors suddenly flew open, seemingly of them own accord and someone walked in.

The girl had a head full of frizzy, red hair that was flying lazily around her head as if she was underwater. Her eyes were glowing a defined emerald color and smoke of them same color was swirling around her feet where she walked. Some of the demigods in the room stood up in surprise and to get a clearer look. The girl stopped in the middle of the empty space, about ten feet from the ping pong table.

Quinn pressed herself against the wall, making herself as small as possible while still standing up. But no one else seemed to be treating the girl as a threat. No one drew the weapons that they always seemed to keep at their sides and no one tackled the girl to the floor, so Quinn thought it was safe to assume that this was someone they knew. But based on the looks that everyone was giving her, it didn't seem like... whatever this was was a normal occurrence.

The girl opened her mouth to speak and green smoked tumbled out as if it had built up behind her lips. As she spoke, the voice that came out was so terribly raspy that it sounded as if it belonged to an a-hundred-and-twenty-year-old woman rather than a teenage girl.

" _The bane of darkness forged of bronze and light,_

 _Infallible only when souls align._

 _The golden son shall seek justice's right._

 _The thief and the snow shall obtain the sign."_

The moment the girl started speaking, Annabeth had started writing down exactly what came out of the girl's mouth. When the redhead finished, Annabeth looked up. "Iambic pentameter?" she muttered.

A boy and a girl started forward to go to the girl, but Annabeth called out to them to stop.

"Why?" The asian boy asked.

Quinn voiced what she and Annabeth were both thinking. "Because whatever this girl is saying, she's not done yet."

Annabeth nodded. "Shakespearean sonnet."

As expected, the smoke didn't cease and the girl continued to speak in that creepy voice.

" _The path of souls must the accursed one tread,_

 _Fording seas of memory and despair._

 _Life's fire will guide the way through fields of dread,_

 _Till master of courage renames his heir."_

" _The stormbringer's son, to arms he must go,_

 _Sail southward to the realm of endless night._

 _An army raised to free the hero's foe,_

 _And release the queen of darkness and blight."_

" _Trials of a hero must the god spawn face,_

 _Lest reaped souls mark their final resting place."_

The two kids who had gotten up both looked to Annabeth, who nodded that it was okay to go to her. The redhead girl collapsed forward and the green smoke disappeared into the air. A third person brought her a chair and helped her to sit.

The centaur turned to Annabeth. "Did you write all of that down?"

Annabeth nodded, but she seemed subdued. Depressed. "I'm pretty sure I got it all, Chiron."

The asian boy closed the doors to the main room of the house, where hundreds of pairs of eyes were still watching them. Once the doors closed, the buzz of noise restarted in the other room, and the people were without a doubt discussing the words that the entire camp just heard.

"What was that?" Quinn asked.

"It was a prophecy. One is generally issued when a quest is given." Chiron the centaur answered grimly.

"So does that mean that someone needs to go on a quest or something?"

"Most definitely."

Annabeth read back the prophecy to the room while everyone else listened. She seemed to keep her composure throughout the reading, but she stumbled over 'the stormbringer's son'. Over and over she tried to get the words out, but eventually she stopped.

"I'm sorry. I need some air." She said. Everyone watched as she, on the verge of tears, left the room.

"We'll be back." Percy added before running after her.

It took a moment before the tension dissipated enough for someone to speak. "Why was the prophecy so long?" The guy with the rainbow tattoo asked.

Leo put his arms around his shoulders. "Butch, my friend, how could you not know? It was a Shakespearean sonnet, with standard iambic pentameter and ABAB rhyme scheme. It is generally used for the most complex of prophecies, issuing quests with multiple moving parts." He said with a knowing smile.

Most of the room stared at Leo much in the same way they would stare at him if he had grown a fifth head. "And how do _you_ know that?" Butch asked.

Leo put a hand to his chest with mock offense. "I am offended-no, wounded. Do you really think of me so lowly? Why is it so surprising that I am aware of information that you don't?"

Butch looked at him even more suspiciously. "Leo, that sentence did even have proper grammar. Seriously, who told you about the Shakespearean sonnet thing."

Leo was about to answer Butch's question, probably with more self-promoting nonsense, but the girl that had elbowed him in the stomach earlier beat him to it. "Apollo, god of prophecies, told us about it when a prophecy with that same structure was given to him."

Leo turned to her with a look of exasperation. "Why did you tell them? I was just about to convince them that I'm smarter than I actually am!"

Calypso smirked. "Because for someone who was that pathetic and worthless, Apollo was hot." She mocked, turning his own previous words against him.

"Very funny."

Chiron stomped one of his hoofs to regain the attention of the group. "Can we please redirect the conversation back to the matter at hand?"

Everyone took a seat again, the air as tense as it had been for most of the night. Everyone looked expectedly to Chiron. Quinn stood quietly in the background, the way she liked it.

As if he was reading her mind, Chiron looked to her. "Well, Quinn. Don't be shy. Take a seat."

Quinn blinked, startled. "But… but I'm not…"

"As the only child of Khione at this camp, you are automatically the head councilor of the not-yet-existing Khione Cabin. Therefore, you should have the right to sit at this table." He explained.

"Yeah." The taller of the two boys that bore a great resemblance to Xander agreed. "If we let Pollux sit here, there's no reason why we shouldn't let you." The shorter of the boys nodded in agreement.

The plump blonde boy looked at them suspiciously. "I feel like there was another meaning behind that other than the fact that I'm the only Dionysus kid."

The brothers only snickered in response.

Quinn tentatively sat down in the chair that Annabeth had only just vacated. She looked around at the circle of unfamiliar faces, but saw none of the indifference that she had grown accustomed to when meeting new people. Strange.

"I'm going to be completely honest, I don't really know any of your names." She said.

In response to this, Leo rubbed his hands together, as if preparing for something. "Okay, you ready?" He asked.

Quinn stared at him blankly. "Ready for what?"

"Rapid fire." He pointed at each person, starting at his immediate left and moving around the circle. "Jason, Piper, Connor, Travis, Sherman, Chiron, Jake, Frank, Hazel, Holly, Laurel, Jenna, Nico, Will, Lou Ellen, Jackie, Ryan, Butch, Rachel in the back over there, Pollux, the lovely Calypso to my right, me, the magnificent Leo, you've met Percy and Annabeth, I assume, and Clovis should be here but he's probably napping somewhere."

Quinn blinked. "What just happened?"

Calypso quietly said, "Just ignore him. It's what I do."

"That hurts, _mamacita_."

Despite the ridiculously fast speed, Quinn thought that she got most of their names. Probably.

"Leo." Chiron said, seriousness and annoyance laced into his voice. "Please sit down."

Leo complied. Chiron picked up the notepad that Annabeth had left behind on the table and seemed to carefully analyze the words.

"So, we were right. Nyx is rising." The blonde guy, Jason, said. "One of those lines said, 'And release the queen of darkness and blight'. Isn't that Nyx?"

Chiron thought about it for a moment, and then sighed. "I'm afraid so. And with the strange occurrences going on, I think that it is safe to say that Nyx is preparing for war."

"But what does she want with demigods? Her children have been attacking demigods and then disappearing without a trace, along with the demigod, right?" Frank remarked.

It took a while for Quinn to digest that information. Eris, who was a child of Nyx, had attacked her earlier with some hellhounds. If Percy, Annabeth and Xander hadn't appeared, she would most likely have been dead. She had thought about that before, but not in the same depth that she began to think about it now. It was a sobering thought.

"I do not know why, but I might be able to surmise what she is planning on doing."

Hazel posed the question that everybody seemed to be thinking. "Well then, what do you think that she is planning?"

Chiron hesitated. "It would probably be best if we go through the prophecy before I tell you." Before anyone could raise any objections, the centaur read the first few lines aloud. "'The bane of darkness forged of bronze and light, infallible only when souls align.'" He read.

"It sounds like a weapon." Will commented. "A weapon forged of Celestial bronze and… light?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that you can't make a weapon out of light. Just from my experience." Jake, who had a giant grease splotch on his cheek, said.

"Actually, you can." Chiron whispered.

All eyes immediately turned to him, curious. "Wait, what?" Several people asked at once.

Chiron hesitated, looking around at the see of expectant faces, before speaking. "Daedalus was thought to have made plans to create a weapon that could incapacitate a god. Or say, make a primordial god go back to sleep indefinitely."

For some reason, as soon as those words were spoken, the entire room seemed to erupt.

"What?! Seriously?! I didn't have to die?!" Leo yelled.

"Why didn't you tell us about this before?!" Jason asked.

"Did we seriously go through that entire hell fest for nothing?!" Piper shouted.

Chiron didn't even try to appease their anger. "Do you see now why I hesitated to tell you? I didn't tell you about it because, first of all, this weapon only exists in theory. Some have tried to create one before, but it has never worked. The weapon is as unstable as a nuclear bomb. If forged with the slightest imperfection, then it could very well explode and take out half of Long Island."

He let everyone digest this information. The people who had stood up in anger sat down again. "Yeah, okay, I guess that makes sense." Leo muttered, still looking unsatisfied.

"Secondly, the Prophecy of Seven had already been issued and as you all know, once there is a prophecy, it is impossible to escape the circumstances of that prophecy."

Everyone nodded, regardless of whether they still held a qualm towards Chiron or not. He continued. "A Blade of Light can only be forged using a physical representation of valor, integrity, and love."

"Yeah, that all sounds great, but what exactly does a 'physical representation of love' even look like? A paper-cut out of a heart?" Sherman asked.

"Like I said, the blade only exists in theory. It apparently needs very specific ingredients, but no one knows what those specific ingredients are. But according to the prophecy, this seems to be the only way to stop Nyx."

There was a tense moment of silence. "Well, we're dead. I guess I should start writing up a eulogy for myself. Do you think that will Akhlys will read it for me at my funeral?" Leo joked, but it only succeeded in darkening the mood.

"Can we just move on to the next part?" Will asked.

Chiron nodded and continued. "The golden son shall seek justice's right."

"The golden son? That sounds like Jason, doesn't it?" Frank asked.

Jason sighed heavily. "I guess it does. So I guess that means I am looking for the representation of integrity or something?"

Chiron nodded. "That makes sense in the topic of justice. But it doesn't say anything other than that regarding where you have to go or what you are looking for."

Quinn thought about it for a moment. "Yes, it does." The moment she spoke, twenty pairs of eyes were focused on her, judging her. Despite the sudden pressure, she continued. "Umm… don't you just need to look for the greek goddess of justice?"

Chiron perked up. "No. Not the goddess of justice, but her handmaiden. Her 'right-hand man', if you will. Astraea, the goddess of innocence and purity, will undoubtedly have a physical representation of integrity. She and Dike, the goddess of justice, are often synonymous with each other and they are both represented with the Scales of Justice and a sword. It could be one of those items."

Jason seemed a little bit happier about the situation, now that he had a definite direction in which to go. "Okay, how do I find this Astraea?"

Chiron's smile faded. "Actually, in Greek mythology, Astraea was the last of the immortal beings to leave humans after seeing them as weak and wicked. After that, no one has really heard from her."

All Jason could say to that was, "Oh."

Chiron turned back to the notepad. "'The thief and the snow shall obtain the sign.'" He turned to look at Quinn. "That sounds like you and a child of Hermes."

Quinn nodded without thinking. Did that mean that she would have to go on a quest or something? Xander briefly explained quests in his tour of the camp, and he made it seem like they were incredibly dangerous. Sometimes people didn't even come back from quests.

Connor spoke up when Quinn didn't. "But what sign is it talking about."

"I'm not sure." Chiron said. "But for now let's keep-"

The doors opened, revealing Percy and Annabeth. Annabeth's face was a little splotchy, but no tears ran down her face. Percy closed the doors behind them. Quinn got up when they came in to give Annabeth's seat back to her, but she just waved the gesture away. Percy reclaimed his seat, while Annabeth went to the head of the table and stood by Chiron. "So, what part of the prophecy are you looking at?" She asked, immediately taking control of the entire room.

No one said a word. "Umm… Annabeth? Are you okay-" Hazel started.

"I'm fine. Now let's keep going. What part are you at?" Chiron told her and Annabeth continued read the prophecy where Chiron had left off. "'The path of souls must the accursed one tread, fording seas of memory and despair. Life's fire will guide the way through fields of dread, till master of courage renames his heir.'"

"Who's the accursed one?" Holly asked.

Annabeth shrugged. "It doesn't matter right now. The other parts of this stanza are more important." Quinn noticed that Annabeth had looked at Hazel discretely, before they both nodded slightly at each other. The accursed one was Hazel, then?

"Fields of dread? With all the death references in this part of the prophecy, it sounds like it's talking about the Fields of Asphodel, doesn't it?" Percy commented. At this realization, Hazel seemed to pale.

"Maybe. So then I guess that means they are looking for this 'master of courage' in the Fields of Asphodel." Annabeth said.

"Is anyone getting the feeling that this prophecy is more of a list of instruction that anything else?" Nico pointed out, speaking for the first time since he had defended Quinn.

Many of the other demigods nodded in agreement. "Well, think about it. We know next to nothing about this Blade of Light. A set of instructions seems to be a lot more helpful than anything else." Lou Ellen pointed out.

"Wait, Blade of Light? What's that?" Percy asked. Annabeth looked only marginally less confused.

Piper explained the conversation that the two of them had missed. And just like the reactions that many of demigods had earlier at the mention of a blade that could incapacitate a god, Percy and Annabeth were initially angry before hearing about the circumstances of creating the blade.

"Regardless of whoever this accursed one is, though," Chiron said, moving on from the Blade of Light discussion, "it seems like he or she will need to search for someone specific, and get the physical representation of valor, as can probably be assumed by the 'master of courage'."

Annabeth voiced her agreement and moved on before anyone could add anything else. "'The stormbringer's son, to arms he must go. Sail southward to the realm of endless night.'" Unlike before, she didn't stumble over 'the stormbringer's son', but she seemed to rush over it to get it out of her mouth as fast as possible. "Percy and I already talked about this. He needs to go to Antarctica, where there is an endless night because the sun won't rise until September. And judging by the rest of the prophecy, he probably needs to get the physical representation of love. Okay, moving on."

Quinn looked around and saw that most of the people's expressions mirrored her own. Annabeth had completely rushed through her analyzation of the piece and left everyone confused, but everyone was too scared to stop Annabeth now that she was in her weird funk.

Annabeth continued without regarding anyone else. "'An army raised to free the hero's foe, and release the queen of darkness and blight.' Basically, Nyx is rising. End of story. Any questions?"

No one dared raise their hand and risk feeling the wrath of Annabeth. In the end, it was Percy who posed a question. "What about that last bit?" Percy read the rest of it over Annabeth's shoulder. "'Trials of a hero must the god spawn face, lest reaped souls mark their final resting place.'"

"That last line almost felt like an afterthought." Jason remarked.

Annabeth nodded. "Then we'll treat it as such for now and ignore it. Any other questions?"

Frank raised his hand timidly. "You don't have to raise your hand, Frank." Annabeth said.

Frank lowered his hand. "Where's the time limit? I feel like there's always a time limit."

Leo nodded. "That's true."

"Nyx is planning her takeover to happen on September 22. The Autumnal Equinox." Annabeth said.

The immediate information seemed to take everyone by surprise and Quinn was relieved to see that she wasn't the only one who was confused. "Wait, wait? How do you know? And why then?" Calypso asked.

"Because on that day, she has an equal amount of influence as the day throughout the entire world. It and the Vernal Equinox are the only days of the year that every part of the world has exactly 12 hours of day and night. She will have equal influence with the day all around the world and it is then that she can unleash her new weapon and overpower Day everywhere at once. She plans to take Olympus on that day as well."

Annabeth was so blank of all emotion that it was scary. Quinn didn't point it out though.

"I guess that makes sense. But how can we be sure?" Sherman asked.

Before Annabeth could answer the question, Percy spoke up. "When we were outside, the old age guy, Geras, appeared with a message from Nyx. She was challenging us to represent Olympus and fight her for control of the world on September 22. She called it a 'battle to end all battles'."

A battle to end all battles. No one spoke for a long time. If the demigods lost to Nyx, then the world would basically end and Nyx would completely overpower Olympus and send the world into endless night.

Leo spoke. "That's over a month from now. That's plenty of time, right?"

"But think about it." Piper said. "Only a month to go search every single soul in the Fields of Asphodel? Hazel roamed the Fields for years and never once saw her mother. Only a month to find a goddess who hasn't been seen in millennia? Only a month to go to Antarctica find the stupid whatever and get it back, forge this legendary weapon, and defeat Nyx?"

Those words seemed to crush the entire room. Whatever hope that had existed was smushed into nothingness. Leo shook his head. "You guys are making it really hard to be optimistic."

Everyone turned to Annabeth for leadership and reassurance that Annabeth didn't seem to have to give. But she just sighed and said, "All we know is that we cannot let Nyx win. We need to issue quests and go out and stop her."

"Like Chiron said, no matter how much you can try to avoid fulfilling a prophecy, it always comes true in the end." Travis said.

Quinn had to admit that this had been the strangest day of her life. It hadn't necessarily been bad, but it hadn't been good either. She could feel this daunting pressure like an anvil flying over her head waiting to drop down and crush her. Was this how all of them felt whenever they were given a quest? If it was, then being a demigod was progressively feeling less and less appealing. She kind of wanted to crawl into a hole and wait out the possible end of the world.

She didn't want to have the entire world depending on her part in this quest. If the world was depending on her, then it was probably going to die. Why couldn't someone else take that burden?

Annabeth and Chiron were beginning to make plans for the upcoming quests when the door opened. A girl with dark hair ran into the room, frantically looking around. She looked on the brink of hysterics.

"Katie, where have you been?" Annabeth asked.

"Have any of you checked on Thalia's Tree?" The girl asked, ignoring Annabeth's question.

"Why? What's wrong?" She asked, standing up.

Katie shook her head, trembling. "It's dead. The tree is dead."

* * *

 **Cliffhanger!**

 **Thanks again for reading chapter four. Sorry if it was confusing.**

 **I am not planning on submitting another chapter until after the Fourth of July after I come back from Paris. So this chapter was twice as long as the others to make up for that.**

 **Bye guyssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!**


	5. Chapter Five: Percy

**Hi guys. I would like to personally congratulate myself for not being dead. I know that I have been inactive for the last month, but dammit it was a long month.**

 **Hope you enjoy the next chapter.**

* * *

"Isn't that the why we fight? So we can end the fight? So we get to go home?"

\- Tony Stark, Avengers, Age of Ultron, 2015

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Chapter Five: Percy

It was everything that Percy had ever feared and more. Only one day had passed and his entire life was already falling apart. He would have to prevent a world catastrophe for the third time ( _Yay_ ). He and Annabeth would have to postpone going to college for an entire month ( _Double Yay)_. He and many of his friends would have to risk their lives over and over fighting an enemy that was hell bent on destroying everything they loved ( _Triple Yay?)_. And possibly the worst of all, Camp Half-Blood, their home, was no longer safe for its present and future occupants ( _Quadruple… you know what, never mind)_.

Percy and some of the other councilors went to see the tree, with Katie leading the way. It was worse that he had imagined. The tree wasn't just dead. It was nothing more than a really long, glorified stick. The tree had shriveled to at least a third of its original size and was a sickly white. Most of the pine needles had fallen off and layered the ground like a thick, green blanket. The tree had fallen over and made it look even more like a corpse.

Peleus, too, had been poisoned. The dragon lay on the ground, too sickly to even lift its head. The Golden Fleece was gone.

Percy imagined himself strangling that poison witch, Akhlys, until she couldn't breathe or hurt anyone else ever again. He couldn't wait to get his hands on the Blade of Light, the god incapacitator.

It took him a long time, too long, to realize just how dark his thoughts had become.

At least twenty guards were posted at all times around the perimeter of the camp and everyone was kept on their toes. No one was allowed to travel outside alone. Fear spread like wildfire and consumed the hearts of many of the campers. Some of the campers that could go home did. Some voluntarily stayed in order to help out. And some didn't have a home to go back to. The panic was infectious, so much so that a couple of the younger campers refused to leave their Cabins.

Percy hated it. He hated it so much. Camp Half-Blood was supposed to be a safe haven for demigods that had nowhere else to go. A home for people like him that didn't have a home. And it had become more than a home to him. It was his life and the people there had been his family for the last six years. So now, to see everyone so afraid and feeling vulnerable made Percy angry beyond belief. He wanted to do something about it. He needed to do something about it. He needed to fight.

But there was something that Annabeth had said after running out of the meeting after the prophecy that had been eating at his mind ever since.

When Percy caught up to her, Annabeth was standing on the porch, staring at the sliver of moon that hung suspended in the dark, night sky.

Percy leaned against the porch railing and waited for Annabeth to speak first. Obviously something about the prophecy was bothering her, but he couldn't be sure what.

"Percy, I'm so tired of fighting."

He nodded. "I am, too. But sometimes we have to fight."

"Why? Why do we have to fight? Or rather, what is the reason for why we fight?" She still wouldn't meet his gaze.

He had to think about that for a moment before he could give a coherent answer. "We fight to save people, I guess."

Annabeth laughed hollowly. "So what you're saying is that we fight for peace?"

"I guess."

"Then, you're right." She started. "Over a decade of fighting has made me realize that we fight so that the fighting can stop, so that we can live in peace." The tears that she had hid before in the Rec Room began to slide down her face. "So if the fighting never stops, then what's the point?"

 _What was the point?_ It was such a simple question with such a simple answer. The point was to save the world. But it was one of those questions that, the longer you thought about it, the less sure you became that your answer was correct.

He hadn't really thought of it before. He had risked his life for the world countless times, but the world never noticed. He had never been the kind of person to ask for recognition for the things he had done, but sometimes it seemed a little unfair. He had to put his life and his friends lives in danger for a world that didn't care about them or their feelings or their lives.

And on top of that, they fought not only to save the world, but also so that they could live in peace and go on with their lives like everyone else in the end. But no matter how many times he won a battle, a new battle was just waiting to be fought. An endless war was not something that Percy wanted, but the world seemed determined to suck him into one.

The entire camp, being on high alert, made it very hard to get some peace and quiet in order to think. So, in order to escape the "don't go anywhere alone" rule, Percy hid at the bottom of the canoe lake away from the prying eyes and the open ears of the busy camp.

Of course, Percy felt bad about suddenly going missing and letting the other campers worry, but sometimes it was good for them to worry. It kept people on their toes. The only one that he told was Annabeth. She had worried and suffered enough for his sake.

He had sat at the bottom of the lake for a while and was about to go back to everyone else and help get ready for the upcoming trip, but then someone came stomping around the lake. Loudly, he might add. He rose of the surface and stuck just the top of his head out of the water to get a better view of who it was.

A girl with a mane of caramel hair was storming up and down the strip of shore alongside the water. Percy had kind of been avoiding talking to her for the entire time that she and Leo were at camp. Percy's and Calypso's relationship was… awkward at best. After she was rescued by Leo, they had talked occasionally, but it was just small talk. Because, after all, he _had_ ditched her on Ogygia to go back to Annabeth. He guessed that that _could_ possibly have made the previously-immortal titan a little bit resentful. Which was why he decided to stay in the water, where it was safe.

"That stupid idiot thinks that he can tell me what to do. I swear-" Calypso muttered under her breath. She picked up a stone and angrily chucked it into the center of the lake, where, Percy distantly noticed, it began flying straight towards his-

The rock hit him squarely in the forehead. "OWWW! I am in pain! Pain hurts!" He yelled, somewhat involuntarily.

Calypso stiffened at the sound of his voice, so much so that Percy might have thought she was one of Khione's ice statues if not for the tomato-red color that her face was turning. "Were you spying on me?" She muttered, her anger practically steaming the air around her body.

"Of course not." He said, rubbing his forehead.

"Then what were you doing in the lake?" She asked through the clenched teeth.

"It is very unusual for a son of the water god to be near a body of water?" He joked. When Calypso's gaze of death intensified even more, Percy finally conceded. "I was just taking time to think to myself."

Calypso rolled her eyes and sat down heavily on the ground at the edge of the lake. She sat for a while looking dejected and refused to acknowledge his existence.

Percy sighed in defeat and squatted down next to her. "So what were you so angry about earlier?" He asked.

Calypso regarded him out of the corner of her eye. "I wasn't angry about anything."

"Yes, you were." He stood up and pantomimed Calypso's angry march around the lake. "'That stupid idiot!'" He said in a mocking voice, before picking up a rock from the ground and half-heartedly chucking it into the water.

Calypso scoffed. "I was thinking about Nunya."

"Nunya?"

"Nunya business." She said with a faint smile.

Percy blinked in surprise. To be honest, he didn't think that Calypso really had a sense of humor. "Wow, okay then."

She reddened in embarrassment. "It was something that Leo said once."

Percy nodded. "Then I assume that is what you were angry about. Something Leo did?"

Calypso laughed hollowly. "Leo. Yeah."

"What's the problem with Leo? Or, rather, what's the _new_ problem with Leo?" Percy asked, sitting down again.

"Well, when we all figured out what 'the land of endless night' meant, I realized that you couldn't go to Antarctica and fight in sub-zero temperatures without Leo's firepower on your side. Annabeth realized it, as well, and came up to Leo earlier to talk about it."

Percy looked at her, confused. "Wait, what? Why does Leo need to come with us?"

Calypso rolled her eyes again. It seemed to be turning into a normal thing with her. "Just because you have the intelligence of a carrot and can't figure it out for yourself doesn't mean that I'm going to explain it to you."

"Why can't I have the intelligence of something tastier?" He whined. "Like a double chocolate muffin? Or an Oreo Blizzard from Dairy Quee-"

"So anyway," She continued in a heated anger, "I told Leo that I would start preparing for the journey, when he stopped me and told me that I wouldn't be coming with you guys. He decided that he could make that choice for me. That _idiota_ doesn't even realize what he can't do without my help." The moment Calypso seemed to get that off her chest, her anger faded, revealing a deeper-rooted concern.

Percy smiled. Despite their constant insults and arguments, Calypso seemed to truly care for Leo, and he for her. She had even started to copy some of his strange speech patterns. It was kind of a weird relationship, but Leo had rescued Calypso where Percy hadn't. It seemed that had counted for something.

"He just thinks that I can't handle myself." She huffed, her anger returning steadily.

"You know that it's probably because he wants to keep you safe." Percy interjected.

She finally turned to look at him. "Is there a difference?"

"Of course there is." Percy mused. "Leo doesn't think that you can't hold your own in a fight. He just wants to protect you anyway. Sometimes I feel that way about Annabeth."

Calypso shrugged. "He shouldn't get to make that choice for me, though. I want to join the fight."

This made Percy pause. "Join the fight," she had said. He couldn't help but be reminded of his conversation with Annabeth.

"Hey, Calypso." He said. "On a completely unrelated noted, can I ask you about your opinion on something?" When she nodded, even though the gesture seemed a little hesitant, he continued. "We fight to save the world so that we can have peace, right? So if the fight never ends and there is never peace, then what is the point of fighting in the first place?"

Calypso looked down and seemed to process this for a while. "Well, I guess we keep fighting because the alternative is worse."

Percy nodded, but he wasn't satisfied at all by the answer. Something about it seemed incomplete. "Because we have no other choice" couldn't be the only reason.

Calypso glanced at him, looked back, then did a double take, as if noticing something for the first time. "Why are you soaking wet?"

It was true. Percy was dripping wet from head to toe, his clothes soaked. He was just surprised that she hadn't noticed until now. He furrowed his brow. "I was… I was just in a lake." He said slowly, pointing to the lake in question.

Calypso blushed. "No, I mean… you know, how you can, like, not let yourself get wet when you touch water and stuff…" she sputtered.

Percy laughed at her flustered state. "No, I get what you mean. I'm just messing with you. The soaking wetness sometimes helps me think." He forced the water violently out of his clothing and it sprayed everything near him, including Calypso, but left him dry. "And now I no longer have a need to think so I no longer need the soaking wetness."

"Thanks for giving me a shower." She muttered, water dripping from her now-wet hair.

"No problem." He said with a smile. "But in all seriousness, Leo is just trying to protect you. We have no idea what we are going to be facing in Antarctica, we have no idea what we are looking for and we don't know how likely it is that we will be coming back." Percy had thought of all of this before, but now that he was voicing it aloud did he realize just how little they knew. It was a sobering thought.

She averted her gaze. "I guess you're right. But that doesn't mean that I agree with it."

"I didn't ask you to agree with it. Just try to see the situation a little bit more from Leo's perspective."

For the third time that night, she rolled her eyes at him, but this time it seemed more jokingly. "Fine."

He offered that they go back to the others to help with preparations and she agreed without the seemingly usual contempt and reluctance. And while the air between them was still a little tense, Percy could see that they had broken the ice between them, at least a little bit.

They walked back to the cabins together, and just as it was when Percy left it, the camp was buzzing with more activity than it normally was at the ungodly hour of two in the morning.

Most of the campers were on patrol around the edge of camp but a couple were helping with preparations for the quests that were soon going to begin. Normally, campers didn't help other campers prepare for quests, but this was an exception. Not only were three quests all beginning at once, but the entire camp had heard the prophecy. Everyone knew what was at stake. And it also seemed to give people something to do other than be scared of the uncertain future.

Annabeth jogged up to meet them at the edge of cabin circle. She glanced suspiciously at Calypso, before saying, "We're almost done with preparations, Percy. Come with me."

While it seemed like the invitation to follow her was only extended to Percy, Calypso tagged along as well. Annabeth matched his stride. "How you doing?" She asked, quietly enough that only he would have been able to hear.

"I've been worse." He answered evasively.

She frowned at this response. "That's not very encouraging."

He waved away her concern. "Seriously, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I just had a lot to think about." He, of course, was not fine. That question was still eating away at his brain. _What was the point?_

Percy could tell that Annabeth saw right through his words, but she seemed to drop the issue. But as they walked, he couldn't help but notice her keep glancing at him when she thought he wasn't paying attention.

They were just cresting the top of the hill when Percy saw it. It was one of those pirate ships that was straight out of a story book, sporting the triple masts and the huge white sails. Small hatches were attached to the sides of the hull, almost as if one was about to open and shoot a cannonball straight up Half-Blood Hill. He was immediately reminiscent of the Sea of Monsters, which normally would be a bad thing if he wasn't so elated.

"No way." He said in disbelief. "Is that…"

"The Queen Anne's Revenge." Annabeth voiced what he was thinking.

"But… but that was destroyed, wasn't it?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"That's what I said." She smiled. "But when I asked your dad for a ship, this was what he gave me. Apparently, he had it rebuilt before the Titan War just because it was such an iconic ship in history. I never really took your dad for a history guy, but apparently so."

Percy looked at her distantly. "Sorry, what did you say? I wasn't listening."

She scoffed at him, but didn't push the matter any further. Taking his hand in her own, Annabeth led him down to the shore, with Calypso close behind. Leo's small figure was standing on the deck. He shouted something, but the sound was lost in the wind.

"What?!" Percy shouted back, as they kept walking in the direction of the ship.

"BEHIND YOU!" Leo shouted again, pointing back in the direction of the hill.

They all turned around to see the face of, what Percy could only describe as, the most hideous creature to ever walk the face of planet Earth, which was saying something, considering that Percy had seen much more than he would care to admit. The creature was somewhat like a human in shape and form, but that was where the similarities ended. It's bluish-black skin hung loosely on its flesh like an old person's double chin but spread all throughout the body. It's eyes were sunken deeply into its skull and it bared its knife-like fangs at him from the top of the hill. It hunched down on all fours and seemed to be more feral animal than human. It was dragging an unconscious camper up the hill. But before it reached the crest of the hill, its head perked up suddenly. It sniffed the air once. Twice. Then its gaze shot in their direction.

"SOUL!" It screamed before suddenly abandoning its former captive and bounding down the hill in long strides like a dog.

Percy drew his pen (that pun would have been funny if the… thing wasn't so utterly terrifying) and removed the cap, revealing Riptide. The human-dog growled deeply at the sight of the Celestial Bronze but it didn't slow.

Percy went into a fighting stance and was ready for it, but instead of charging straight at him, it leaped over him and pounced on Annabeth, who was standing behind him.

"Annabeth!" He shouted, slicing the creature across the side and forcing it off of her. It shrieked some ethereal sound and leaped towards him, focused on a new enemy. Percy sidestepped it, but it was quicker than Percy has expected and it tried to scratch him with its long claw-like nails, barely missing his face.

Both of them recovered quickly and faced each other again. The thing licked its lips and stared at him with wide, joyful eyes. It was enjoying this. It was like it was toying with him. He shivered at the thought.

The creature, seeing an opening, lunged forward and knocked Riptide out of Percy's hand. It smiled sickly. Suddenly, a torrent of water hit it directly in its side forcing the thing off of its feet.

Percy called upon the ocean and a huge wave rose straight from the sea, crashing down on the creature. In the time that it was recovering from the water, Percy started towards his sword, which had washed away and was halfway across the beach. The creature noticed this, though, and bounded forward towards him in long loping strides. It had to be almost twice as fast as Percy, but Percy was closer to Riptide. He reached out for his sword in the sand as the creature approached and just as it was about to pounce on him, Percy turned, using the movement to put power behind his swing and he cut through the creature's body like butter.

The sword cut off the creature's arm and dug into its torso as Percy began to lose the strength behind the swing. The sword stuck inside its body but wouldn't go any further. He tugged on it, beginning to panic when it didn't come out, but luckily the creature seemed to not have the strength to continue.

"SOUL!" It shrieked again. From point blank range, the sound pierced Percy's eardrums and threatened to make his ears bleed. He clapped his hands to his ears but the sheer force of the sound nearly made him collapse to his knees. And then it did. The sound seemed to pierce his very soul and crush whatever strength he had that was keeping him on his feet.

Then suddenly, the sound stopped, but the cold feeling remained. He couldn't stand.

A voice, cold like ice, dark like night, suddenly burned through his mind. A voice that he knew would keep him up at night. _Nyx_. Percy was sure. "The eternal night is coming for you and yours. Your beloved will be the first and we will delight in the pain that her death brings. But you, Percy Jackson. You will be the last to fall. You will watch your world engulfed in darkness and beg for our forgiveness. Forgiveness that will not come."

The speech was vaguely familiar. Eris. Except for some minor changes, the speech almost completely mirrored Eris's when they were in the alley. But unlike the last one, these words cut through him like a knife.

 _Annabeth._ Of course the gods would torture him like this. They never were kind.

Even when the voice subsided and the shrieking was gone and the monster had evaporated, Percy lay in the sand, unable and unwilling to move.

"Percy!" Annabeth screamed distantly. The sound of feet hitting the sand distantly reached his still-ringing ears and Annabeth's face appeared in the corner of vision, the details of her face blurred slightly.

"Percy," she repeated breathlessly, searching his face, "are you hurt? Are you okay?"

He nodded slowly, the sand chafing at the side of his face, and began to lift himself off the ground. He hadn't realized how much he was shaking until his arms nearly gave out when supporting his weight. Annabeth gently put her arm underneath his to support him and helped him to stand.

"What happened?" She asked. "One moment, you were slicing your sword into Eurynomos, then the next, you were on the ground, writhing."

"Wait, what did you call that thing?" Percy asked, but he was completely unfocused. He hated the way that he could barely stand on his own, let alone do anything else. He hated how his voice trembled like it would break at any moment. He hated how helpless he felt. If Nyx was seriously planning on hurting Annabeth, then he couldn't afford to be so weak.

"Eurynomos. He's a flesh-eating, carrion-feeder-like-monster that lives in the Underworld." Annabeth said, as they slowly made their way back up the length of the beach to the ship. "He's another child of Nyx."

He sighed and tried (probably unsuccessfully) to appear disgruntled. "Of course he would be. Nyx really doesn't want to leave us alone for even a moment, does she?"

She frowned. "Percy, I've known you long enough to know when you're trying to avoid a question. Please, tell me what happened?" Annabeth seemed to be searching his face for the answers that he wouldn't give her.

Percy wanted to tell her. He really, truly did, but the words seemed to stick in his throat and wouldn't come out. And, there really was no reason to tell her, right? It was just another idle threat. They would defeat Nyx before the world ended, like they always did, and everything would be fine. No one was going to die. Percy tried to laugh her question off. "It was nothing, really. It just screamed really loudly right into my ear and I just suddenly felt really tired. I swear that's all that happened."

Annabeth's frown deepened and it was clear that she didn't believe him, but she stayed silent.

As they approached the Queen Anne's Revenge, Leo and Calypso ran up to meet them. "What in Hades was that?!" Leo yelled.

"Euronomo. Flesh-eating demon. Son of Nyx." Percy said, keeping it short and to the point.

"Eurynomos." Annabeth corrected.

"Yeah, that."

"Are you guys okay?" Calypso asked.

Percy nodded and tried to avoid their eyes, hoping that the gesture would prevent them from asking why he had collapsed. But in doing so, his gaze immediately fell on the campers that were on patrol. In the skirmish with Eury-whatever, he had completely forgotten about everyone else. The campers on border patrol were beginning to regroup and had already gotten someone to replace the guy that the demon had dragged halfway up the hill.

It was in that moment that Percy realized that it was never going to end. Until Nyx was defeated and they figured out how to protect the camp again, nothing was going to change. Monsters would continue to attack Camp Half-Blood until it was nothing but ruins.

"We need to leave." Percy said, quietly. He looked to Annabeth. "Are preparations almost done?"

She looked slightly confused at the sudden passion, but nodded. "Quinn's already on board, so we're pretty much ready to go."

Percy cocked his head in confusion. "Quinn's coming?"

"You guys are going to a place where there is only ice and snow. Don't you think it would be helpful to have someone with you that can control ice and snow?" Calypso said mockingly.

"Cut me some slack. It's been a long day." He complained.

They walked up the gangplank onto the ship and suddenly, Percy's nervousness died down. Being on the water simply felt right. The ship seemed to hum with life the moment he stepped aboard. Or maybe Eurynomos' screeching left him delusional as well shell-shocked.

Quinn was sitting on a barrel, completely focused on the space in front of her. She moved her hands gracefully and small snowflakes formed in the air. Then she thrust her arm forwards and a blast of ice hit a wall on the far side of the ship.

"You're getting pretty good." Annabeth remarked.

Quinn reddened at the praise. "Th-thank you."

Percy turned away from them and leaned against the railing of the ship. Camp Half-Blood was abuzz with life. Percy watched as Jason and Piper mounted Tempest, Jason's lightning horse, as they prepared to find a missing goddess. He watched as Mrs. O'Leary the hellhound, with Nico, Hazel and Frank aboard, raced down the hill and leaped into shadows of a tall tree and disappeared from sight. He saw Chiron, who watching everyone from the Big House porch with concern, his bow and quiver on his back as if he was waiting for an inevitable fight. He saw the campers on border patrol, some of them only thirteen years old, who were doing everything they could to protect their home.

But if monsters kept attacking the way they had been, then who knew what would be left of Camp Half-Blood when they came back.

He sensed Annabeth's presence behind him without needing to look. "I'm sorry that I didn't help you prepare. I shouldn't have been so distant." He said without turning around.

"It's alright. I understand the need to get away from it all."

After a long moment of silence, Percy straightened. "We need to protect our home."

Annabeth nodded her agreement. "We need to defeat Nyx. We're ready whenever you are."

Percy turned and found a pair of gray eyes, watching him expectedly. He smiled, but then remembered Nyx's words. _Your beloved will be the first and we will delight in the pain that her death brings._ His smile faded.

Percy closed his eyes, partly to concentrate and partly to hide the anger burning inside him for Nyx. He listened to the waves lapping against the side of the hull and the wind blowing in from the sea. And almost of their own accord, the sails unfurled and the ropes flew and the wheel turned. The wind filled the sails and the ship creaked as it turned to face south.

Despite of comfortable familiarity of the ocean, the fear and anguish taking root in Percy's soul wouldn't be quelled as the demigods sailed off into the night.

* * *

 **Thank you guys for reading. Again, apologies for not writing sooner. The next chapter will probably come out this week, but if not, it will definitely be there next week.**

 **Please, I know my writing is shit, so tell me my writing is shit. It's not that hard. All you have to do it hit the comment button and say "Hey, your writing is shit". See? Simple. Just comment or PM what I could do better about my writing because that would be really helpful.**

 **Okay byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!**

 **(I'm obnoxious I know)**


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